BOLD AND BRAZEN - The Jaw-Dropping Art of WANGECHI MUTU

By Oyiza Adaba

Africa-Related New York

“I went to a Catholic school and we were all girls. I was surrounded by women, women teachers, women students, the Virgin Mary - all kinds of feminine energy.”

— Wangechi Mutu

I finally made it to the last day of the ”Intertwined” exhibition by Wangechi Mutu, the Kenyan born American visual artist, painter and sculptor, whose thirty-year body of work showed at The New Museum in the Bowery district of New York, from March to June 4, 2023. I was left with a mixture of shock, strength, pride, fascination and inspiration. Never have I seen mud, clay and feathers look this good.

On Woman

“It's an eternal source of inspiration for me. The way we worship the image of the woman but denigrate the actual human being of woman - that schism bothers me” **- Wangechi Mutu**

Fifty year-old Mutu, whose art career started in the mid-90s with painting and collages, later became known for her works in sculpture, film, performance arts. She often shuttles between her studios in Nairobi and New York, from where she draws two different types of creative energies.

Crocodylus

In August 2022, The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) announced the acquisition of Crocodylus, the magnificent 6 ft.1 half-woman-reptile bronze sculpture influenced by the artist's memories of the Kenyan wilds. While critics challenge her for ‘objectifying women’ in her works, Mutu credits her creativity to anatomy images she read in her mother's science books growing up; combining her love for nature and plants and animals, insects and sci-fi in thematic works - where the female character, form or subject “remains central”. She continues to use the feminine form to highlight social issues around casualties of war, harmful practices, rape, and the environment.

The Sentinels

The Sentinels

“I want to make sure that she is absolutely stable and that she's able to stand… “

It has been a fantastic ride since Wangechi Mutu’s first solo exhibition in the U.S at the National Museum of Art in 2013. Her works have shown at notable spaces from the Tate Modern, Art Studio Museum and MoMA, Modern Art Contemporary Austin and the Art Museum Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and has participated in the Venice Biennale. Mutu also founded the Africa Out organization, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that supports artists around Africa.